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Introduction
Fuel ¨C material for burning, combustible matter as used in fires, can be a kind of
liquid or other material, which by its combustion with air in an internal combustion engine (Jobling, Longley, Page and Crawford, 10). There are many different kinds of fuels exist in the modern world. Some of them are natural resources and non-renewable while some others are man-made by processing the natural resources. However, the purpose of their existence is the same provide power and energy for human beings. Ethanol, is one of the most widely used alcohol fuels in the world. Its relationship with human beings is significantly close. This report will investigate the history of ethanol, its properties, its production, its uses and the environmental effect as well as its advantages and disadvantages of being an alternative fuel.
History
Ethanol¡¯s history as a transportation fuel goes back many years to Henry Ford and other transportation pioneers. In the 1880s, Ford built one of his first automobiles ¨C the quadricycle ¨C and fueled it on ethanol. However, a new fuel ¨C gasoline ¨C emerged dominant in the early twentieth century. Ethanol re-emerged for transportation use in the late 170s. Americans began filling their vehicles with ethanol ¨C blended gasoline (Ethanol history, 00).
Properties
Firstly, Ethanol has different physical properties from other alcohols. Its chemical formula is CHCHOH, which contains the hydroxyl (-OH) group, which as the functional group, determines the properties of ethanol. Therefore it also called ¡°ethyl alcohol¡± or ¡°grain alcohol¡± (Jobling, Longley, Page and Crawford, 10). Pure ethanol, which is known as ¡°absolute alcohol¡±, is a colorless, limpid, volatile liquid which is flammable and toxic and has a pungent taste. It boils at 78.4¡æ and melts at ¨C11.¡æ. It can be blended with water in all proportions and can be dissolved in acid to form very weak acid. Nearly all the ethanol used is a mixture of 5% ethanol and 5% water, known simply as 5% ethanol (ibid.).
On the other hand, ethanol has similar chemical properties to other alcohols. It undergoes all of the reactions of a primary alcohol, such as replacement of the hydrogen of the ¨COH group of an active metal. It also reacts with carboxylic acid to form esters and oxidizes therefore to form acetaldehyde (CHCHO). Like water, ethanol can react with Li, Na, K Mg and other active metals to liberate hydrogen. When it is dissolved in water, it can act both as weak acids and as weak bases (Jobling, Longley, Page and Crawford, 10).
Finally, ethanol has important properties as an alternative fuel. Ethanol has about / the energy content of gasoline and a high blending vapour pressure which will potentially increase evaporative losses from vehicle (Jobling, Longley, Page and Crawford, 10). It has high octane rating and very low cetane number, therefore it is an excellent fuel for petrol substitution in spark ignition engines but much less useful in compression ignition engines for diesel fuel substitution (ibid.). Its heating value is relatively lower, which requires over four times as much heat to vaporize it as compared to petrol and therefore a larger fuel pump and fuel jet orifices are required in engines converted to neat alcohol or high proportion blends (Energy authority of NSW, 186). Since it is a single substance, ethanol has a narrow boiling point, which results in that the common engine cannot provide enough fuel vapour to ignite because of its low starting vapour pressure so it cannot be used in neat form in existing vehicle engines without engine modification. However, it can be used as a 10% blend in petrol with only minor changes to the engine and has the similar performance (ibid.).
Production
There are many different methods for producing ethanol. Ethanol can be produced from starch crops such as grains and tubers or from crops containing fermentable as well as conversion of cellulosic materials such as agricultural residues and other herbaceous and woody biomass (Energy authority of NSW, 186). Fuel ethanol is commercially produced by converting the starch or fermentable sugars of agricultural crops (ibid.). However, the simple process of fermentation to ethanol by yeasts is the most promising of all the photo biological energy processes since it provides directly a liquid fuel. It can make ethanol from almost any plant material with varying degrees of success wheat, rice, potatoes, sugar cane, apple and so on (ibid.). The immediate product of fermentation is a water solution containing up to 15% ethanol. This ethanol can be concentrated by distillation. For crops contain simple sugars such as sugar cane, it can be fermented directly by yeasts whereas starch crops must have their starch converted to these simple sugars before fermented can proceed. Considerable quantities of energy are required for the starch processing and particularly the distillation step (ibid.). There are many ways for converting biomass to ethanol. However, the relative efficiencies of these methods may vary in different cases.
Ethanol is costly to produce. There are prospects for significant reduction in ethanol production costs over the next 10 years mainly through the development of technology for conversion of cellulosic materials. Production costs of ethanol based on conversion of existing mills. Cane is about 107 cents/litre and sorghum is about 56 cents/litre (Jobling, Longley, Page and Crawford, 10). Developments in technology in recent years have reduced ethanol production costs through reduction in energy use. A few new technologies, which are not yet commercialized, have potential to reduce plant-operating costs 10% over the next 5 years, such as bacterial fermentation and yeast/enzyme immobilization (ibid.).
Environmental effects
A major problem for fuels of transportation is the vehicle emission. For ethanol, the exhaust emissions of hydrocarbons with 10% ethanol blends have been shown to decrease by from 1% to %. In addition, there is a significant reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) emission. However, nitrogen oxides emission from vehicles using ethanol blends increase by approximately 5% ¨C 6%. Moreover, carbon dioxide (CO) emissions also occur from the ethanol production process. This is actually the biomass derived, which is one of the sources of greenhouse gas (Jobling, Longley, Page and Crawford, 10).
There are also some problems which occur during the production process. The production of ethanol produces liquid effluent, which is 10-15 times the volume of the ethanol produced and these liquid wastes contain high chemical and biological demands, which could effect the surrounding environment negatively very much. They are discharged to streams, sewer and ocean after suitable prior treatment. Solid wastes such as mill mud and boiler ash would be mixed at the factory prior to distribution and therefore they can act as a soil conditioner and fertilizer (Jobling, Longley, Page and Crawford, 10).
Safety features
In a fuel ethanol plant, the potential threats to workers¡¯ health and safety are explosion, fire hazards and exposure to toxic or corrosive chemicals used in process. However, the storage and distribution of ethanol are well understood processes and therefore no significant problems are to be expected if the processes are operated correctly (Energy authority of NSW, 186).
Advantages and disadvantages
Ethanol has many positive features as an alternative fuel. Firstly, it is renewable and relatively safe; secondly, its energy density is higher than some other alternative fuels, such as methanol; furthermore, it can improve agricultural economies by providing farmers with a stable market for certain crops and finally the use of ethanol can decrease emissions of certain emissions (Energy authority of NSW, 186).
However, there are some disadvantages with the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel. It costs more money to produce and use; it has a smaller energy density than gasoline. Presently, it takes about 1.5 times more ethanol than gasoline to travel the same distance. Moreover, it requires vast amounts of land to grow the crops needed to generate fuel and the process for conversion of crops to ethanol is relatively inefficient. Finally, ethanol production can generate waste products, which is extremely toxic to aquatic that must be disposed (Energy authority of NSW, 186).
Conclusion
To conclude, ethanol is one of the most well known alcohols in the world and has been widely used as a liquid alternative fuel in both blend and neat form. It is one non-oil renewable resource and has relatively safe properties. These significant properties have shown that ethanol has a great potential to become an important fuel in human beings¡¯ life.
References
Energy authority of NSW. (186). NSW SUGAR CANE TO FUEL ETHANOL. Australia New South Wales Government.
Ethanol-history. (00). www.ethanol-crfa.ca/history.htm
Ethanol/methanol vehicles. (00). www.consumerenergycenter.org/transportation/afv/ethanol.htm
Jobling, J. H, Longley, J. A, Page, D. L and Crawford, R. E. (10). INVESTIGATION INTO ETHANOL AND ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORT FUELS IN NEW SOUTH WALES. Australia New South Wales Government.
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